The Precocious Indian Development Model and its Future
Featuring Arvind Subramanian
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
With Discussant Pratap Bhanu Mehta
President, Centre for Policy Research
Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development
Hosted by Nancy Birdsall
Founding President, Center for Global Development
Despite being one of the fastest-growing economies, India has hit a turbulent patch in recent years with declining growth and increasing macro-economic instability. India's emphasis on skill-intensive manufacturing and services over unskilled manufacturing has left a large portion of the population under-employed. At the same time, India’s precocious democracy has uniquely shaped both its economic and institutional development.
In this lecture, Arvind Subramanian will reflect on India's unusual pattern of economic and political development, and look to its prospects for the future. How can India’s institutions develop to both create investment opportunities and provide essential services to its citizens? Can India overcome its reliance on skills-based industries and become a manufacturing powerhouse? With India’s elections wrapping up on May 16 and a new government assuming office, a major challenge will be to rehabilitate India's development model or search for an alternative.